Meet the Brewer – Ryan Suske, Tanker

The Story of Tanker

Having arrived in Estonia from San Diego in the US, before the craft beer revolution had really got moving here, Ryan struggled at first to find a beer he wanted to drink. The obvious solution? Brew it yourself.

Starting from 50 litre batches brewed in the garage at home, Ryan managed to make the beer flavours that fitted his craft beer tastes – first for himself, and then an increasing group of fans.

Tanker then grew from the combined efforts of Ryan with Ants and Jaanis, and is a way for them all to express themselves creatively, with weekend brewing a break from their corporate careers Monday through Friday.
And the combination of different backgrounds, tastes and interests – not to mention, a supportive family – works, with the team producing a core range of three beers already, and more to come.

At present you can get their Mint Stout, Kyte Peale IPA, and my current favourite the ‘Fallen Angel’ Patuingel, which contains pepper for a spicy finish. The beers are not run-of-the-mill; each one has something quite distinctive about it, and the brewers seem intent on keeping it that way as their range increases.

Jaanis Tammela from Tanker & Sami Keinänen from Hops United

What’s Next?

There are more new brews on their way, and the team at Tanker have put their money where their mouth is, with 7 tanks – equipment and space that could potentially provide the capacity to grow from their current 40000 litre licence to producing anything up to 10000 litres per month.

With Tanker beer already available in some supermarkets, the market for their unique brews is already proven. Look out for new brews including a session IPA, and a sauna-inspired birch flavoured beer, amongst up to ten or twelve new beers planned for this year.

Ryan describes his view that Estonia is one of the best places in Europe to try craft beer, and it is clear that he is enjoying the opportunity to try, and share, something new.

As I was leaving the brewery, I got a chance to test out a new brew that was still at it’s ‘experimental’ stage. The sort of thing every beer lover enjoys – the brew that’s still freshly bottled, and so early stage it’s not yet even got a label. It’s another beer with a flavour twist – and we loved it.

When even the experiments are turning out this good, you’ve really got to look forward to the finished article.

About us

UNFORTUNATELY WE ARE CURRENTLY CLOSED!

Your friendly and legal online beer shop.

We are finnish-estonian online beer shop, trying to make beer shopping easy and fun — against all odds. We are legal, we pay exactly the same taxes as Alko does in Finland, but we are more fun and independent. So buying beer from us, is not only good for you, but is’t also good for your country.

Please contact us at [email protected] if you have any questions, wishes or anything you’d like to share with us. If you are happy the beer and service, please tell your friends, tell everyone — we’d really appreciate that!